Dr anDreas ebnetH - Evotec

Dr anDreas
ebnetH
Short Summary
oF ScientiFic career
dr andreas ebneth received his
phd in biochemistry from the
university in hannover, germany,
focusing on the biophysical characterization
of oncogenic transcription
factors. he conducted
his postdoctoral studies at the max
planck unit for Structural molecular
biology in hamburg studying
the role of the microtubule associated
protein tau and its role in
alzheimer’s disease. in 1998,
andreas joined genion, a newly
founded start-up cro focusing
on ion channel research where
he was responsible for assay
development and screening, and
supported electrophysiology. he
then joined evotec neurosciences
and was involved in a collaboration
with takeda focusing on target
identification and validation in
alzheimer’s disease before taking
over the position as a group leader
supporting internal r&d activities.
Since 2010 andreas is Vp neurobiology
at evotec and responsible
for the collaboration with chdi in
the field of huntington’s disease.
1.
introduction
one key field of evotec is
neurodegenerative diseases/
cnS. what is the expertise and
history of evotec in this area?
Evotec has been actively involved
in drug discovery and development
in neuronal diseases and in particular
neurodegenerative diseases for
close to a decade. In neurodegenerative
disease the primary focus
was Alzheimer’s disease and then
adding projects in HD through a
collaboration with CHDI, Parkinson
disease through a collaboration
with the Michael J Fox Foundation
and more recently also in MS as
key member of the NEU 2 consortium.
In AD, Evotec’s main focus
was on the development of a small
molecule MAO-B inhibitor as well
as the identification of new AD
targets through one of the most
comprehensive screening efforts
conducted based on well characterized
diseased patient derived tissue
samples.
Based on these internal and collaborative
efforts Evotec has built a
highly sophisticated and integrated
drug discovery platform for neurodegenerative
diseases covering
essentially all biological and chemical
aspects from target identification/validation
to lead identification/optimization
as well as formal
preclinical and clinical development.
2.
how can you and evotec
contribute to finding new
drugs and new targets in this field?
My major contribution is my scientific
interest not only in neurodegenerative
diseases but in particular
in HD. HD is the major topic I
spent most of my time with for the
past 2–3 years. During this time I
benefitted tremendously from the
enormous knowledge and expertise
from my colleagues at CHDI
who are clearly the leaders when it
comes to translating new insights
from basic science into possible
drug discovery approaches for
HD. I am extremely excited about
being part of their team and hope
to contribute to their efforts by efficiently
moving experiments from
the drawing board into the hands of
expert scientists and technicians in
our laboratories. This managerial
role coordinating many projects in
parallel always ensuring that they
get the attention they need and
thereby achieve results in a very
timely and cost effective manner
is my other major contribution.
Beyond this, it is my ambition to try
and push the boundaries of what is
technically feasible in order to overcome
major obstacles associated
with a very challenging disease.
3.
in which project(s) are you
currently involved?
Currently, I am overseeing the
Biology part of about 10 individual
projects within our collaboration
with CHDI. These projects
reach from target validation to
advanced small molecule inhibitor
projects. It would be beyond
the scope of this interview to
go into more detail. At Evotec I
work closely together with my
colleagues in Abingdon, Daryl
Walter and Steve Courtney,
responsible for the medicinal
chemistry part of the projects.
One of the most exciting projects
I have been involved in is the high
resolution and high throughput
imaging of animal models of HD
where promising targets are being
validated with regard to their role
in the aggregation of huntingtin
in different brain regions. In
this project Evotec on behalf of
CHDI launched new and cuttingedge
virus-based target validation
technologies. Another exciting
and more advanced program is
targeting the tryptophan metabolism:
here Evotec supports CHDI
since a couple of years already
and the project currently triggers
quite some hope and enthusiasm
based on recent promising results
obtained in animal models of HD.
4.
how will your collaboration
with chdi look like?
In my opinion our collaboration
with CHDI is definitely one of
the most exciting major collaborations
currently actively pursued
by Evotec. Due to its scope and
enormous continuity over many
years we have built exceptional
teams that are highly integrated
and extremely constructive and
project oriented. Such a very
intimate working relationship is
instrumental to answer or address
questions and problems in a very
pragmatic and non bureaucratic
fashion. Secondly, as CHDI is not
running their own laboratories
Evotec is solely responsible for
the hands-on laboratory work and
maintenance of an infrastructure
to ensure not only proper support
of ongoing projects but also to
keep up a certain infrastructure,
e.g. animal models even if they
are not immediately needed.
In summary, it is a great privilege
to be working with a highly
professional group of people
who are leaders in their fields in
such a focused fashion on HD.